


A Burning Memory

by Nicxan



Category: Rusty Lake | Cube Escape (Video Games)
Genre: (She is set on fire that is what happens), (the other family members are there too but for like .2 seconds), Also there is cultish behavior, Gen, Minor Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-13
Updated: 2019-05-13
Packaged: 2020-03-02 17:57:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,011
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18816073
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nicxan/pseuds/Nicxan
Summary: She woke up that day knowing her life would come to an end.





	A Burning Memory

Paradise was always its most breathtaking during a cloudless morning. The sun would peek over the horizon, making Rusty Lake shimmer and shine, and eventually cast its beauty on the island itself. The trees stood tall, proud and healthy, with healthy green leaves. Small songbirds would sing cheerful tunes as they rode the air currents of the gentle breeze.  
  
It felt peaceful. It felt serene. It felt _perfect_. Paradise truly earned its name. Anywhere else paled in comparison, and they were proud of their home that they had built together –  as a team.

It was simply a shame that this would be the last time she would ever see it as her true self.  
  
Caroline stirred in her makeshift bed as the light filtered through the opening in the stone tower. She sat up, slowly, taking a moment to stretch out. A dull ache throbbed through her arm. She must have slept on it oddly, she thought to herself. She peered out of the makeshift window to take in the view of her beloved island one last time.  
  
The lake’s still waters looked back at her, and she couldn’t help but smile. She couldn’t see the shoreline, but the rowboat she sent her son out on couldn’t be seen at all. Jakob had made it, surely. He had made it to safety, away from the island. Away from a family that meant him ill will.  
  
Knowing he was well would be enough for her.  
  
“It’s time.” Nicholas’ voice resonated through the room. She hadn’t even heard him come up the stairs. Caroline looked at her husband with a stony expression, eyes completely blank. He had donned his white robes for the occasion, that damned deer mask covering his head. She couldn’t get a read on his expression, or what he might be thinking.  
  
Caroline gracefully rose to her feet, and moved towards the stairs. He stepped in front of her, grabbing both of her wrists with one hand, and began tying them together. She set her jaw, seething in silent anger. ‘ _How much does he intend to demean me?_ ’  
  
“What a shame that it had to come to this.” The lack of any care in his voice made her blood boil. “But it is for the best, for all of us.”  
  
“If you truly believe that, then I can’t stop you. Nor will I try.” Nicholas paused, and the deer mask tilted down. She felt his cold gaze boring into her. She simply stared right back at him, with the same stony expression she had earlier.  
  
She knew he had admitted defeat when he pulled her towards the stairs. They walked down in silence, her steps echoing throughout the dark, narrow hallway. Caroline let herself be led towards the entrance of the spire.  
  
The light of the morning sun nearly blinded her once they stepped outside. The clearing in front of the spire had been altered – wood was gathered into a massive pile, with one long log upright. There was space for her to be tied on there. She could see that much, even from here.  
  
Nicholas wordlessly led her towards the arrangement. He moved past her children, brother, and secondary mother. They said nothing, only stared at her with the eyeless gaze their masks provided. They were completely still, complicit in her fate. A pang of despair washed over Caroline, but she kept her jaw tight and her gaze stern.  
  
Even as her own family wrapped her up on the stake, she remained absolutely silent. Nicholas’ slow, methodical movements were a farce. She could feel his hands tremble as he helped Elizabeth tie her up. He wanted answers. She _knew_ he wanted answers.  
  
He would get nothing.  
  
Only the lake deserved the knowledge she had found. If they were foolish enough to take the wrong sacrifice, then they would not obtain the enlightenment they seek so desperately. Caroline took comfort in that.  
  
Caroline’s family gathered around her. Their quiet drove her mad. Every part of her wanted to scream ‘how could you’ - how could Nicholas willingly sacrifice his firstborn son? How could everyone stand by and let this farce happen? How did they not know what plagues would befall them with this unworthy sacrifice?  
  
The torches had been lit; Caroline could already feel the heat radiating from them, but she forced herself to give nothing. No pleading looks. No groveling. No pitiful tears. She swore to herself that she would remain a closed book.  
  
Then, they lit the wood. It wasn’t long before Caroline started screaming in agony, the flames burning her flesh. They continued to climb up, scorching every part of her, burning through her clothes. Her eyes remained opened as she wailed in pain, and she could see her memories take the shape of cubes as she was burned alive.  
  
She couldn’t stop screaming. It was difficult to hear Nicholas cry out for the cubes and make a grab for them – but before he could even touch them, they had vanished. His anger sounded so sweet to her. The utter defeat Nicholas felt in that moment made this all worth it.  
  
It was the last thing she could remember before the flames consumed her entirely.

* * *

She watched them from afar, now. She watched them struggle futilely with the lake’s punishments with quiet glee.  
  
Every time Nicholas had to drink blood, his face contorted with disgust. Every time David tried to fish, he came up with nothing. Gerard ‘starved’, unable to eat as much as he wished to. Margaret couldn’t work with the goat, even at her best. It would make her smile, if she were able.  
  
They would call for him soon. They would beg Jakob to come back to help them. But she would guide him, show him what the lake had told her. What the lake had confided in her. It told her of the past, present, and future. _Their_ future.  
  
If it meant obtaining the secrets Nicholas so desperately longed for, and keeping those secrets from him? She would wait as long as it took.


End file.
